kids ponies (A moan) and todays show

[Snowberry]

We went to a local charity show today and I was absolutely shocked and horrified at some of the ponies people owned and allowed their kids to ride!!

There were rearing ponies, not ponies just threatening to rear but full height, get of my bleeding back I wanna kill you type rears!!

These were being ridden by small kids 8-12yrs old
There was a child of about 8yr old on a pony that could buck for England - how the kids managed to stay on was beyond me. Eventually the pony got the kid off by dropping a shoulder before the fence and almost trampled it on the way out of the arena!!!!
Then there was the ponies that napped/kicked/bit (yes a pony tried to BITE ME!!!)

Why do people put up with ponies with such bad manners and dangerous vices? Especially for their little ones??

I have never been so horrified in years of showing as I was today but no one else seemed to batter an eyelid!!

Everyone commented on how 'lucky' we are with our well behaved youngster, who's manners are pretty good and is as bombproof as they come. But I wouldnt have or want anything else for my kids and if we had a pony that started rearing/bucking we'd find out why not take it to a bloody show and have it almost kill us!!!!

Why do people put up with dangerous ponies? or do I just have really high expectations?

Overall we had a very succesful day - Hattie won the best combination, 2nd in WHP, 4th SJ, 1st games and Louis did a very nice handy pony too

I hope everyone else had a lovely day too

*SB reaches for very large glass of wine *

 

[Vey]

I think the short answer is 'because people don't have the skills to produce a well behaved pony, or even manage the pony they have, so it remains well behaved.'

When my kids were young, we would go along to the local Pony Club, and watch it happening. We would see the new pony bought as a six year old, turn out to be a three year old. We would hear the advice given to take it showly, introduce the pony to different things in turn, and we would watch it being ignored.

My twins were content to introduce their youngster, backed at four, to one thing after another, until she became comfortable with the whole lot. Then as a six year old, she started winning everything, and we got: 'Oh you are so lucky!' Well, she had a temperament to die for, but actually the Twins had worked through a lot of young horse issues, taking advice from me and other competent adults - and incidentally also ignoring a lot of advice from incompetent ones. She died in a freak accidnet, and we bought another youngster - same process, same result, more or less, allowing for individuality, and same annoying comments.

Meanwhile some families had pony after pony - swapping as soon as they hit a difficulty, always blaming the pony and not the rider, and.......

and never learning how to work through a difficulty, how to train a pony, or come to that a young horse.

And the parents not taking time to work with the kids and the ponies, either - but expecting young kids to have the experience and the maturity to deal with all sorts.

 

[Snowberry]

yep, I agree.

It amazes me when I see ponies that have been really well produced and that have had a brilliant competition record etc... that get sold on for serious amounts of money only to end up in the hands of someone that doesnt have the ability or know how
1yr after buying the pony its the sort of animal you would find at a bad riding school!!! (no offence to riding schools

)

I seriously do not understand though why people think its ok to have a pony that is (IMHO) a looney!!

 

[jj_87]

SNAP to your rant i was thinking about posting something similar after my day at a show today. The grey welshie parked next to us was throwing itself around in the box whilst the lady taked it up then when she plonked the kid on it had an utter hissy fit reared up, realised the kid was still on so carried on rearing i shouted to the kid to jump off as it was getting dangerously close to where our lot were tied and anything could of happened! I didnt blame the kid for not wanting to get back on! hmph rant officially over

 

[4whitesocks]

and what really gets me is that for kids, seriously, it's supposed to fun surely.....
we (me & my sisters) all learned to ride on a trusty 12 2 worth his weight in gold, once we were confident we moved on but only to a level where our parents knew we were safe...
I've seen this too in Pony Club where the parents know absolutely nothing about horses but thought the palamino was 'just so pretty' never mind that she was a lunatic with a death wish....
I know some people are really serious about winning etc and that's the way their kids are brought up but surely not at the risk of your child..
you can guarantee that once those kids are brave enough to say no to their parents they will never ride again and never know how much enjoyment they can get from it

 

[SpruceRI]

It's mostly because totally unhorsey parents buy their kids a pony because it's pretty but have no idea that all ponies are not the same. i.e, they don't realise that that pony could actually kill their child.

I remember years ago being at a local show and watching the kids mini jumping class. There was a little boy on a grey Welsh Mountain who was just so strong and naughty. The child was terrified and no way was he strong enough to hold it. His mother marched him into the ring while he sobbed his heart out, the pony bolted off round the ring, with him screaming in terror. It ducked under the ring rope mid gallop and the child got dragged off backwards by the rope round his neck. Child taken off in ambulance with mother having stood over him and berated him for not riding properly!!! I mean, the woman should've been arrested for child cruelty.

 

[Gingernags]

I just don't think a lot of kids today go through what we did when we had ponies. I used to see it at the big livery yard and it was horrendous. Kids that had one or two lessons persuading daddy to buy them a pony that they couldn't muck out properly, knew nothing about feeding, and couldn't ride as it was too much to handle. Saying that this would be a 13.2 pony fed ad lib haylage, plus hard feed, and stabled 24/7 in the winter - and they wondered why they couldn't sit on it!

I used to get a hard time as a kid, I served my time learning to muck out properly and how to look after a pony, and riding anything I could get my hands on for 4 years before I got a pony. Made a huge mistake and bought a 5 year old that had been broken at 4 and turned away, TBx welsh but a very finely built one.

That pony turned into a monster but I persevered, I schooled, I rode every day and the spinning stopped, the bolting stopped etc etc - took years though! ONly to be blamed for all the trouble at the yard because my pony was so good (fantastic jump in her) that everyone felt they had to buy something better, then couldn't ride a leg of it, and that was all MY fault! Sheesh! Can't win!

It does seem to be a trend though, all the old ways we learned are scoffed at, yet who has the well behaved ponies we didn't pay a fortune for? And the ones who didn't learn thehard way have expensive ponies that are ill mannered and downright dangerous in some cases. I know which camp I'd rather be in!

 

[Snowberry]

[ QUOTE ]
It does seem to be a trend though, all the old ways we learned are scoffed at, yet who has the well behaved ponies we didn't pay a fortune for? And the ones who didn't learn thehard way have expensive ponies that are ill mannered and downright dangerous in some cases. I know which camp I'd rather be in!

[/ QUOTE ]

Totally agree - although slightly worried you are making us sound ANCIENT!!

LOL

 

[Gingernags]

I'm starting to feel it!!!!!

It does seem like ages ago though, but then I've had horses well over half my life and been riding since I was ten - now 34!

Sadly it is a generation gap I have to say...

Still have a mental age of 21 though!

 

[clipclop]

This is a subject me and my friends regularly discuss!

The children we know of that have grown in to genuinely good teenage riders have come up through on good ol proper ponies, not pretty little flighty things. Now, you watch these riders competing youngish horses and they have the know how to not screw them up and they have a great seat to encourage, oh and they continue to have regular lessons!!

On the other hand there is Mr Flash Dad who goes out and buys Felicity a pretty pony with plenty of Spirit because can you imagine the embarressment of leading around a hairy thelwell type? This same person expects rosettes at every outing and blames everyone but himself when it all goes wrong. Grrrrrrr!!

I don't remember any of my friends having a flashy pony, we all had good old hairy native types that were all about 100 years old and we had more problems with getting them to move and stop eating grass than we did with rearing and bucking. LOL. We had picnic rides, we would make twig cross countries and just leave the ponies grazing where we dumped them with their tack on. We would pretend we were Ginny Holgate and Lucinda Prior-Palmer. Uh oh,,,I'll stop now I am reminising (sp) and I fear I may not stop for many hours

Cheerio for now
Cx

 

[Gingernags]

Its so true though! We had a track called "the grand national" (Hee hee - still call it that!) where it was really nice and grassy but with several fallen trees and we used to bomb along it!

Yes the picnic rides, now I used to tie my pony up - didn't trust her that much as I wasn't clever enough to start on a native that wouldn't move, I got the mad TBx. We used to untack though. Three of us sat eating sandwiches and drinking pop and smart ars* mate who DIDN'T tie her pony up had to watch it disappear back home! She had to walk about 6 miles while we carried her gear. The farmer was laughing fit to bust at her when we got back. Pony was happily munching in the field!

Have fond memories of my mad pony deciding not to wait in line to go over a small stile next to a large forestry gate. 17.1 horse in front, she thought was taking too long, so she popped the gate - about a 4 foot one, from a standstill, down hill, in the snow! Nutter! Luckily it was too quick for me to be scared. Thinking about it, I guess I know where Asti got it from jumping another full height gate with me from a standstill, must run in the genes!

Ahhhh. I miss it all, it was such fun! Hacking to gymkhanas, hacking to hunt meets and paying the junior cap but still drinking whisky and punch and chatting up the whippers in...